Venturing into Open Source | GSSOC 2018
Really doesn’t seem too long ago, when I used the term Open Source only because it was trendy among developers, without knowing anything about it. Today, if I can swing git commands with my muscle memory and find and contribute to various open-source projects, it is all because of GirlScript Summer of Code 2018.
Back in the month of May this year, I got to know about this event from a friend who happened to be one of the organisers, and immediately decided to participate in it. After which I had to wait, for quite some time, before the final selected projects were listed on the website and it was finally time for us to pick where we belonged.
I have been a web developer of sorts, for the past 5 years, or so. I began my development journey with a social network made with a free PHP script, and then moved on to WordPress. In 2018, I decided to move on to proper code-based web development, and it was then that my love for JavaScript started to kindle. When I had filled in the Registration form for GSSOC- 2018, it had been only a couple of days after deploying my first full-stack web application: http://facerecengine.herokuapp.com . Naturally, I was very excited to dive right in, into the world of development, and build projects which had real-life utility.
Fortunately for me, there were a number of web-dev based projects in GSSOC and I was excited to work on all of them. The first thing I did, was to join all the relevant channels. I then forked all those repositories into my own GitHub account, cloned them on my local machine, and installed all dependencies.
However, I could and I did, work only on one Project, which is GirlScript India’s official Website.
I submitted one of my final Pull Request’s today, and looking back, I can definitely say that the experience was amazingly enriching. With the strong guidance of mentors like Vishwaraj Anand, and Shivam Kumar Jha, the work was always very well sorted and the issues were properly organized.
Overall, GSSOC was a perfect blend of learning and competition. I can remember the thrill of receiving info about a new issue on mail, and rushing to the comments to claim it before anyone else did. But, I also remember how participants collaborated in the comments and helped each other out, without any greed of points, or recognition. GSSOC instilled in us the core principles of collaborative approach and productivity.
I am waiting for the results to be out, hoping that I win something. Plus, I can’t wait to share the final website which I helped create. Will update soon.
Also, for all those of you who are looking forward to starting your open-source journey, this will be your Holy Grail : https://akrabat.com/the-beginners-guide-to-contributing-to-a-github-project/
Keep Coding.
